Marketing & Promotions
9 National Singapore Day Marketing Ideas for Restaurants
5 min read
Jul 26, 2024
5 min read
Jul 26, 2024
It’s time to pivot your tables toward the sky and turn your “island” red because National Singapore Day is upon us. The event celebrates the nation’s 59th birthday and is a time when families and loved ones salute sovereignty with patriotic festivities and traditions. As a restaurant owner, this public holiday gives you a chance to entice new diners and delight returning guests with themed events and curated offerings.
In 2024, National Day falls on Friday, 9th August, commemorating the day Singapore gained its independence in 1965. The nation is small, but the celebrations are big, and the opportunities to drive revenue, even bigger!
Every year, Singapore celebrates her birthday with national flags, fireworks and festivities that define the strength of a (mer)lion. Its national mascot provides ample inspiration for your party and restaurant event themes.
This day is celebrated using several time-honoured traditions you can use to inspire your National Day promotions, such as a fireworks display, the National Day Parade (NDP) and an inspirational message from the prime minister of Singapore. Here are a few marketing ideas that will help you host a memorable birthday celebration.
Offering creative specials and upgrades can be an effective way to spread awareness and attract more diners who are searching for unique, food-focused celebrations.
To drive more prepaid revenue, offer special add-ons or upgrades when a guest makes a reservation online, such as a champagne toast, celebratory bottles of wine, pour packages, signature desserts or preferred seating with views of the shows. At SevenRooms, we found that reservations with pre-paid upgrades average 35% more revenue than those without!
Using the SevenRooms booking widget, Italian restaurant, MONTI, encourages guests to toast in style by promoting selections from their wine and bar list, which they can choose to have chilled and ready for drinking upon arrival.
Create a signature cocktail to mark the occasion. Then, adorn your libations with the Singapore Flag, a red and white straw to get people in the spirit or a Vanda Miss Joaquims, Singapore’s national flower.
Here are a few promotional upgrades you can use to toast Singapore with themed, specially crafted cocktails:
Want to really surprise and delight? Consider turning part or all of your restaurant into a cocktail bar room for one night only following microbrewery Level 33’s example.
The venue plans to pair the Singapore Sling and other house-made brews with locally inspired live canapé stations positioned throughout during its National Day standing cocktail event. Guests who pre-book its “free-flow package” will get a front-row seat to the aerial displays and fireworks show over the Marina Waterfront — all while enjoying endless sips.
Level 33 used the SevenRooms online booking widget to take reservations for its National Day cocktail event.
Every year, Singapore assigns a new theme song to be performed during Singapore's National Day Parade (NDP) and throughout the festivities. This year’s National Day song is “Not Alone” sung by Benjamin Kheng.
Honour this tradition at your restaurant by hiring live bands and performers to sing the theme songs of years past or by allowing diners to perform their own karaoke rendition of this year’s tune under red and white stage lighting. Make room for a stage and flank each side with a merlion statue, representing Singapore's maritime heritage and its original name.
Whichever themed events you decide to host this year, remember to promote them on your website, social media platforms and email campaigns so you can build excitement and generate prepaid revenue.
For example, SevenRooms client Super Loco uses a custom events landing page to showcase the details of its National Day celebration online, which helps them generate sales before guests even set foot on their property.
A custom events landing page helped secure prepaid revenue for Super Loco’s National Singapore Day celebrations.
SevenRooms’ event software allows you to take reservations in advance, allowing your team to place accurate orders and plan accordingly. The feature also generates a unique URL for use on social media, paid ads and email campaigns so you can easily track which marketing channel drove the most business.
Singapore’s most notable National Day events include a nighttime fireworks show, the NDP and the state flag flypast. Invite those without a good view of the show or a way to see the parade to your restaurant for a watch party. If you don’t have views of Marina Bay, you can still put on a show by live-streaming the events on your in-house TVs.
This type of party will certainly draw a crowd. Offering prix fixe menus and asking guests to book in advance will help your staff handle the heavy foot traffic this holiday will surely bring. (Case in point: Caffe Fernet’s family-style sharing set dinner is already sold out!)
Serve Singaporean staples like char kway teow, curry and laska or nasi lemak that hit on guests’ desire to immerse themselves in tradition. For example, Fufu Pot is spotlighting the national dish up until the big day, a chili crab seafood bundle and iced kacang bingsu for dessert.
Source: FuFu Pot Facebook
With reservations for this day in high demand, consider implementing reservation deposits and cancellation fees to help reduce no-shows and last minute cancellations.
Offer a themed takeout menu to engage those who prefer to celebrate Singapore at home or with their own party crowd. Cook up travel-friendly dishes that will hold up to wherever they choose to sit to watch the fireworks show or listen to the national day message. For larger groups, offer family-style items guests can easily serve up to feed their loved ones.
Include extra surprise items with each order that will help customers drive home a festive National Day theme:
To encourage more online orders, send marketing emails and promote on social media in the weeks before the holiday. In each message, be sure to include the details surrounding your special takeout menu items and a list of the other ticketed events you’re hosting — ensuring they’ll choose your restaurant no matter how they prefer to celebrate.
While other venues host adult-only celebrations, advertise your ability to cater to all age groups by inviting families to dine with you. Serve family-friendly dishes and consider offering discounts for group reservations so families know to bring the whole clan. (Just remember to adjust your floor plan to accommodate larger parties.)
This year, MONTI is accepting reservations for three different seatings, including an earlier timeslot for families. The reservation includes a kids' menu that follows the same three-course cadence as the adult menu — a thoughtful way to consider the needs of all diners.
Adjust your promotional materials to be more inclusive, using verbiage like “A Birthday Celebration for the Whole Family!” and “Come One, Come All.” If you also plan to offer takeout menus, this would be the perfect time to advertise your family-style meals to-go.
The Singaporean flag's colours are red and white. Red represents brotherhood and equality, while white represents purity and virtue. Adorn your restaurant tables, doors and walls with these colours.
Below are some budget-friendly ways to honour the Republic of Singapore without too much advance preparation.
This year’s NDP 2024 theme is “Together, As One United People,” underscored by its National Day campaigns: #GiveAsOneSG and #TogetherAsOneSG.
Double down on this theme of giving by partnering with a local organisation working to foster meaningful change. Let customers know that dining with you on National Singapore Day helps support and give back to their communities.
Before the holiday, create an events page on social media for additional exposure (maybe: “[Restaurant] Gives Back on National Day) and place tri-folds on every table advertising the partnership and ways guests can help you pay it forward during your meal.
What’s a birthday without cake? Ask your head baker or pastry chef to create a showstopping, photo-worthy birthday cake fit to celebrate Singapore’s independence. Launch the giveaway online, noting that one lucky follower will get a special cake delivery on 9th August.
Instruct participants to follow you and tag their friends. For added traction, include behind-the-scenes footage of your chef baking and decorating the cake, and post the content regularly throughout the contest.
This is not the time for restraint — go all out with your decor, flavours and colours, and ensure your food photography evokes all the senses. The more you promote the giveaway, the greater your brand exposure.
With patriotism and pride on display across Singapore, restaurants are poised to attract proud diners on National Day. But it takes careful planning to become a National Day destination, and leveraging the right tools can help ensure you delight guests and drive revenue.
SevenRooms’ CRM, reservation software and marketing tools simplify the process of securing reservations and promoting events. Request a demo to explore ways SevenRooms can streamline your strategy for the National Day of Singapore and beyond.
